I heard that you could remove the vinyl on the a-pillar of the '08 XB2 for a cleaner look. Is this a good idea? Does anyone have any pictures of what it looks like without it? And if it is do-able, how would this affect the weather stripping?

 

I did it to my tC...the weather stripping in not affected....i dont know if it will look cleaner but it will look different...look @ profile for pictures...i say do it!

 

Looks good from what I can see, nice TC by the way, awesome paint. So how do you go about doing this?

 

I heatgun..but it can be done wit a blow dryer

 

get ready for some thumb blisters!!!
i did that on my rs1.0, and though i LOVE the look, decided i liked my finger tips too much to even try it again on my rs3.0!!! i swear, that adheasive is the strongest stuff i have ever encountered!!

 

Its not that bad... but you will suffer some pain...its easies if you heat up whole section at time...

 

^--- or better yet, pull a huck fin, and convince your friend they "can't" do it!!

 

Yeah I say do it. It's the first thing did when I brought my xB home. I like the way it looks (on the 2nd Gen) with just the A pilar tape removed. When you take it off the doors it still has the black rubber weather stripping and it stands out. The rubber blends in when the tape is still there. There are several people here that have done it, so I'm sure they'll chime in.

Oh and it's really easy to do. A heat gun/blow dryer will help, but I didn't do either. Just got a corner started and pulled.

Here's a pic of mine, not great but you can see how the pilar doesn't have it but it's still around the windows.

 

Awesome thanks guys, I think this will be my weekend project along with smoking out my headlights.

 

I took the vinyl off today on my RS5 and it looks awesome. The process was easy and finished in like 15 min with a hairdryer. Gives the car a nice clean look.